Law School Celebrates Publication of St. George Tucker's Law Papers

St. George Tucker PapersDean Davison Douglas and Charles Hobson celebrate the publication of the three-volume St. George Tucker's Law Reports and Selected Papers, 1782-1825, which is being published by the University of North Carolina Press in conjunction with William & Mary's Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersDean Davison Douglas welcomes guests and provides background on St. George Tucker, William & Mary's second professor of law.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersA good crowd was on hand to celebrate the publication of the St. George Tucker papers.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersWilliam & Mary President Taylor Reveley expresses his appreciation of St. George Tucker's standing in American law and reminisces about working with Charles Hobson over the years.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersJoan S. Lovelace, managing editor of the Law Papers of St. George Tucker, receives thanks for her invaluable work on the project.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersCharles Hobson recounts the long road to making the publication of St. George Tucker's papers a reality.
David F. Morrill

St. George Tucker PapersWorth the wait -- the three-volume St. George Tucker's Law Reports and Selected Papers, 1782-1825, published by the University of North Carolina Press in conjunction with William & Mary's Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
David F. Morrill

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by David F. Morrill
|
January 25, 2013

When you edit a magisterial 12-volume
edition of the papers of John Marshall (1755-1835), what do you do for an
encore?

If you're Charles Hobson, you tackle
the law writings of St. George Tucker (1752-1827), William & Mary's second
professor of law.

"In
my career, I've had a second act," said Hobson, editor of the Law Papers of St.
George Tucker at William & Mary's Omohundro Institute of
Early American History and Culture. "Seven years ago, the 12th and final volume of John Marshall was published. I
suppose I could have quietly exited the stage, but I didn’t."

Hobson took the stage on the evening
of Tuesday, Jan. 22 at William & Mary Law School when Dean Davison Douglas
and William & Mary faculty, staff, and friends celebrated the completion of
his work on Tucker. The three-volume St. George Tucker's Law Reports
and Selected Papers, 1782-1825 is being
published on Jan. 28 by the University of North Carolina Press in conjunction
with the Omohundro Institute.

A state
and federal judge of considerable merit, and probably the most influential
legal scholar of the early nineteenth century, St. George Tucker is best known
for his five-volume edition of Blackstone's
Commentaries (1803), which, included hundreds of pages of his annotations. As
a young man, Tucker came to William & Mary in 1771, and read law
under the College's first professor of law, George Wythe, whom he succeeded as
professor in 1790.

The
publication of Tucker's notes brings to light an archive that is unmatched in
terms of surviving legal papers. During his time as a state and then federal
judge, Tucker compiled 35 notebooks reporting 1,100 cases in the Virginia
courts. The result is a valuable resource for studying American law in its
formative period.

"In
the broadest terms, Tucker's law career as a professor, commentator, and judge
was all of a piece," said Hobson. "If the grand theme of his Blackstone's Commentaries was the
adaptation of English common law to the circumstance of early republican
America, then Tucker's law reports provide ample documentation of the practical
working out of that process."

Hobson received his doctorate in history
from Emory University in 1971. A specialist in the constitutional and legal
history of the early republic, he has written articles on James Madison and
John Marshall, and is the author of The
Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law (1996). He completed
his 12-volume annotated edition of John Marshall's correspondence and papers in
2006, and also coedited the papers of James Madison.

On
hand to celebrate the publication of Tucker's notes, William & Mary
President Taylor Reveley referred to Tucker as a "protean figure in American
law." As the former dean of the Law School, too, Reveley was particularly glad
that Tucker's work was in the hands of a scholar as meticulous as Hobson.

"It’s
another brilliant editing job by one of the masters of the craft," Reveley
said.